Effingham man guilty in murder of father, brother, wounding of mother

SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — A jury convicted a Georgia man of murder Thursday night in the 2008 shotgun slayings of his father and brother, crimes prosecutors said resulted from a family feud over an affair between the defendant and his brother’s wife.

The Effingham County jury deliberated about six hours Thursday before finding 42-year-old Craig Heidt guilty of malice murder and nine other counts, including a charge of aggravated battery for shooting his mother in the face.

Heidt closed his eyes and shook his head as the verdict was read. The judge said he would sentence Heidt later. However, the murder charges carry an automatic life sentence.

Prosecutors said Heidt killed his father, real estate developer Philip Heidt, and younger brother, Carey Heidt, in August 2008 after they discovered he had been sleeping with his brother’s wife and tried to stop the affair.

Both men were killed in bed by shotgun blasts at Philip Heidt’s home in Springfield, northwest of Savannah. Craig Heidt’s mother, Linda Heidt, survived being shot in the face, but was unable to identify her attacker.

“The man that is capable of sleeping with his dead brother’s wife is capable of doing anything,” prosecutor Michael Muldrew said in his closing argument Thursday. “He hated his brother, he hated his father and the only way he’d inherit any money to finance his lifestyle is to kill his father and kill his brother.”

Heidt’s defense attorney, Dow Bonds, insisted a lack of physical evidence linking Heidt to the crime amounted to prosecutors asking them to take “a leap of faith” and left plenty of room for reasonable doubt.

Craig Heidt denied committing the slayings and investigators never found the gun, the spent shotgun shells or any fingerprints or blood to incriminate him.